Facebook Beacons

Facebook recently unveiled a new Social media/advertising feature called Facebook Beacons. A beacon tracks the online behavior of users not just within Facebook but everywhere on the World Wide Web. For example, if a user buys something online at Amazon, that information is recorded through the use of a tracking cookie.

The cookie storing you purchase information will then be broadcast to all your friends as is everything else on Facebook as a news feed. (Facebook Beacons are optional of course!) The idea behind this is that your friends will be able to view what you bought and from where you bought it, thus no ad or banner across your page BUT a rather subtle recommendation from a friend.

The reality of this marketing experiment is that if users find it disruptive to their Facebook experience they will seek other alternatives. If however, it is a success then the advertising benefits are enormous.